HARIPUR: A five-day summer school on bioinformatics concluded here the other day with scientists, researchers and practitioners pledging to use their expertise to promote the modern technology in different fields.

The department of microbiology, University of Haripur (UoH), organised the event for over 100 participants, including students, PhD scholars, researchers, faculty members of different public sector and private universities, representatives from private labs, pharmaceutical industry, government and semi-government organisations.

On the occasion, the organiser, Prof Waseem Ahmed said over 170 types of software were in use around the world in the field, but Pakistan had only three.

He stressed the need of educating maximum number of students, laboratory technicians and researchers so the modern technology could be put to use in medical, botanical, pharmacy, human genetics and other areas.

Dr Habib Ali Bukhari, Dr Abid Fareed, Dr Waseem Haider and Dr Waseem Ahmed imparted training to the participants about bioinformatics, its application in medical, botanical, pharmaceutical, pharmacy, microbiology, human genetics, medical lab technology, industrial biotechnology and other related sciences.

The participants were also educated about handling the software, building libraries using bioinformatics, DNA sequencing and human genetics. The organisers also distributed certificates among the participants.

Chairman Pakistan Science Foundation Prof Shahid Mehmood Baig was the chief guest at the closing session.

Dr Syed Mohammad Ali, chairman department of microbiology, UoH Vice-Chancellor Prof Shafiqur Rehman and others were also present.

Published in Dawn, July 25th, 2022